The stress system is well known to play an important role in relapse to drug abuse and excessive eating and is largely controlled by corticotropin releasing hormone receptors (CRHR) and their endogenous ligands. In order to gain further insight into excessive eating, we developed a binge-eating model in which female rats with a history of intermittent food restriction show binge-like palatable food consumption after 15 min exposure to the sight of the palatable food. This frustration stress manipulation also activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress axis. We determined the role of the stress neurohormone corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in stress-induced binge eating in our model. We also assessed the role of CRF receptors in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a brain region implicated in stress responses and stress-induced drug seeking, in stress-induced binge eating. We found that systemic injections of the CRF1 receptor antagonist R121919 (2,5-dimethyl-3-(6-dimethyl-4-methylpyridin-3-yl)-7 dipropylamino pyrazolo1,5-apyrimidine) (10-20 mg/kg) and BNST (25-50 ng/side) or ventricular (1000 ng) injections of the nonselective CRF receptor antagonist D-Phe-CRF(12-41) decreased frustration stress-induced binge eating in rats with a history of food restriction. Frustration stress also increased Fos (a neuronal activity marker) expression in ventral and dorsal BNST. Our results demonstrate a critical role of CRF receptors in BNST in stress-induced binge eating in our rat model. CRF1 receptor antagonists may represent a novel pharmacological treatment for bingeing-related eating disorders.